LOCATION AND SIZE
South Tongu District lies between latitudes 6°10’ and 5°45’ North and longitudes 30°30’ and 0°45’ East. It is located in the southern part of the Lower Volta Basin and bounded to the north by the Central and North Tongu Districts, to the east by the Akatsi South District, to the west by the Ada East District of the Greater Accra Region and to the south by the Keta Municipality. The District occupies a total land area of 643.57 square kilometres representing 3.1 percent of the land size of the Volta Region. It was established by Legislative Instrument (L.I) 1466 of 1989 with Sogakope as its capital. The District has four Area Councils and forty electoral areas.
POPULATION STRUCTURE
According to the 2010 PHC, the total population of the District is 87,950 representing 4.1 percent of the total population of Volta region. Females
constitute 54.5 percent of the population as against 45.5 percent for males. The District is largely rural with majority (87.1%) of the population living in rural areas. It is also observed that older people aged 60 years and older of both sexes are more likely to be found in the rural than urban areas. The population density of the District is 136.7 persons per square kilometre which is higher than that of the Region (103 persons per square kilometre). The District has a total household of 20,509 with an average household size of 4.2. The age-sex structure of the population in the District consists of a broad base made up of a large number of children and a small number of elderly persons at the top. The broad base of population pyramid represents the younger population and a narrow apex of the older population. It is noticeable that with increasing age, the structure looks slightly thinner for the males than for the 2020 PBB Estimates – South Tongu District 4 females, indicating that at older ages, the proportion of males is lower than that of females. At age 20-24 years, the proportion of males to females is the same
VISION
To be one of the best managed District Assemblies in Ghana.
MISSION
To improve the quality of life of the people through effective mobilisation of the human, material and financial resources for accelerated socio-economic development and to create an enabling environment for private sector participation.
GOAL
The goal of the South Tongu District Assembly is to facilitate improvement in the quality of life of the people in the District through the provision of basic social services and infrastructure and also to promote socio-economic development within the context of good governance and in partnership with key stakeholders.
FUNCTIONS OF THE ASSEMBLY
The functions summarizes the roles of the various structures of the South Tongu District Assembly to improve the quality of life of the people through effective mobilisation of the human, material and financial resources for accelerated socio-economic development and create an enabling environment for private sector participation.
CORE FUNCTIONS
- Promote local economic development in the District
- Formulate and execute plans, programmes and strategies for the effective mobilisation of the resources necessary for the overall development of the district;
- Promote and support productive activity and social development in the district and remove any obstacles to initiative and development;
- Initiate programmes for the development of basic infrastructure and provide District works and services in the district;
- Responsible for the development, improvement and management of human settlements and the environment in the district;
- Responsible for the maintenance of security and public safety in the district;
- Promote justice by ensuring ready access to courts in the district;
- Execute approved development plans for the district;
- Guide, encourage and support sub-district local structures, public agencies and local communities to perform their functions in the execution of approved development plans;
- Monitor the execution of projects under approved development plans and assess and evaluate their impact on the development of the district and national economy in accordance with government policy.
- Co-ordinate, integrate and harmonise the execution of programmes and projects under approved development plans for the district and other development programmes promoted or carried out by Ministries, Departments, public corporations and other statutory bodies and non-governmental organisations in the district.
DISTRICT ECONOMY
Agriculture
South Tongu District is an agrarian district where agriculture employs about 46.7 percent of the economically active population. The 2010 PHC shows that a total of 56.3 percent of households are engaged in agriculture. In relative terms, the agricultural households comprised 96.4 percent in rural areas and just 3.6 percent in urban communities. The key agricultural sub-sectors include primary crops production, animal husbandry and fishery/aquaculture. Under crop production, a high proportion of households (90.9%) are engaged in crop farming in the rural areas as compared to 73.6 percent in the urban areas. Major crops grown in the District are cassava, beans, maize, okro, pepper, groundnut, garden egg, sugarcane, rice, tomatoes and sweet potatoes. Rice is cultivated commercially on about 3,500 hectares at Fievie and Kpenu. Pepper or chilli farming also dominates as a main cash crop undertaken by farmers at Agbakope, Agbagorme, Hikpo, Sasekope, Dendo and Tsavanya. The Agriculture Department of the District Assembly has been providing training and extension services to chilli farmers for cultivation of chilli for the export market.
In the case of livestock rearing, the proportion of households engaged in this farming activity is higher in the urban areas than in rural localities. Major livestock reared in the District include chicken, cattle, goat, sheep, piggery, guinea fowl and duck. Cattle rearing dominates livestock activities in the District. In terms of herds of cattle, the District ranks the highest in the Volta Region. The absence of tsetse fly, short grasses
and low rainfall pattern provide a favourable environment for animal husbandry. Most of the animals are reared on small holder or subsistence basis except poultry which is undertaken for commercial purposes at Sogakope, and Kpotame. Fishing is of special interest because the District is endowed with numerous water bodies including the Volta River, creeks and lagoons. The Volta River which flows through the District is rich in fishes such as tilapia and fresh water clam (Adodi). Also, there are numerous creeks and lagoons running parallel to the Volta River and serve
as good breeding grounds for tilapia, shrimps and mud fish. Fish farming is undertaken at Tadze and Sokpoe and harvested for sale within and outside the District to towns such as Accra, Keta and Aflao. Unlike fish farming, inland fishing as a trade is no longer lucrative and has experienced decline in terms of people seeking their livelihoods in the sector. Analysis by sex shows that the agriculture sector employed
53.9 percent and 41.3 percent of males and females respectively
Market Center
Dabala and Sogakope markets are the two major markets that facilitate trading activities in the District. These markets are hosts to traders not only from the District but also from other adjoining Districts. The District has vibrant micro, small and medium scale industries which include cassava, fish and soya beans processing, soap and detergent making, baking and confectionary, pottery, mat weaving, batik tie and dye, crop drying, water purification and metal fabrication. These industries are served by commercial banks (GCB Bank, Agriculture Development Bank), Agave Rural Bank and non-bank financial institutions (micro savings & loans companies). A relatively high proportion of females (22.7%) than males (12.1%) in the District are engaged in the industrial and manufacturing sector.
Road Network
Physical access to services such as health, education, postal and telecommunication, agriculture extension, banking, police and marketing centres are mainly by road. In terms of road networks, about 36km of the ECOWAS highway traverses through the District from Tema in the Greater Accra Region to Aflao in the Ketu South Municipality. Settlements in the Agave-Afedume and Larve Area Councils are linked by untarred feeder roads measuring about 87km. In addition, some communities like Adutor, Avuto, Agbogbla and their surrounding communities are linked to Dabala by a tarred feeder road of 19km. Another tarred road of about 45km connects Dabala Junction in the South Tongu District to Anloga in the Anloga District. Generally, the surface conditions of untarred roads in the District are good in the dry seasons but unmotorable during the rainy seasons. These unmotorable roads hinder easy movement of goods and services, slow down economic activities and reduce people’s income. Lake transport though important in the District, has not received much attention and is therefore poorly developed. Local canoes are mostly used to
transport goods and people across the Volta River and lagoons. A major setback is the seasonal fluctuations in the water level, which renders movement cumbersome and dangerous during bad weather conditions where precious lives could be lost.
Education
Formal education is provided at pre-school, primary, JHS, and SHS/TVET and Tertiary levels in the District. There are 87 Kindergarten schools, 83 primary schools, 60 Junior High Schools, 3 Senior High Schools, 1 Vocational/Technical School and 1 Private Tertiary Institution distributed across the District. The primary school level has the highest enrolment of students and trained teachers whereas TVET level receives the lowest student enrolment and trained teachers.
Health
The District is divided into six (6) health sub-districts (Sogakope, Dorkploame, Sotewu, Dabala-Adutor, Dordoekope, Agorta-Gamenu) for the purposes of effective health service delivery and administration. Health service in the District is delivered at three (3) levels. The first level is delivered by the Community Health Officers in 18 CHPS Compounds; the second level is delivered at Health Centres, while the third level is
delivered at Hospitals. There are two hospitals in the District (District Hospital and Comboni Hospital) which serve as referral facilities for the Health Centres and CHPS Compounds. The District is fairly served with health facilities but many of these facilities are not functioning well due to lack of qualified staff and equipment. The District has 27 health facilities made up of one District Hospital, one Catholic Hospital,
four Health Centres, 18 CHPS Compounds, PPAG Clinic, 1 private Maternity Home and 1 private Clinic. Some of the health facilities lack adequate infrastructure and clinical personnel thereby hindering effective health service delivery in the District
WATER AND SANITATION
Data on main sources of potable water shows that, pipe-borne water accounts for 66.7 percent, followed by river/stream (21.5%). Bore-hole/Pump/Tube well water (0.4%) forms the least used source of water by households. For the source of potable water by locality, pipe-borne water is the most used in urban areas (96.7%) than in the rural areas (61.5%). Also, the use of River/Stream is predominant in rural areas (25.1%)
than urban areas (0.4%). This implies communities without potable water stand a risk of suffering from water-borne diseases and also covering long distances to access potable water. Majority of households (30.9%) do open defecation (bush, beach and field). In urban localities, high percentage of households use public toilets; whereas bush, beach and field are the cases in the rural areas. Thus, there appears to be no significant variation between households in urban and rural areas in terms of access to toilet facilities. The proportion of households without access to toilet facility is quite high and poses serious health concerns.
According to 2010 PHC, majority of households (39.9 %) dispose of their solid waste through burning. Most households in both urban (38.2%) and rural (40.2 %) localities also use burning as a method of solid waste disposal. It was observed that indiscriminate disposal of solid waste is a method of disposal employed by urban households in the District. With regards to liquid waste disposal, 66.6 percent of households in the District
dispose their liquid waste onto their compounds. Most urban households (65.3%) and rural households (66.8%) also dispose their liquid waste onto their compounds. Sewerage systems (1.1%) are the least used liquid waste disposal method in urban localities whereas through drainage into a pit (soak away) (0.5%) is the least used in rural communities in the District. However, the use of gutter for disposal of liquid waste is relatively low in rural than urban areas.
ENERGY
Power
The District has over the years benefited from government’s rural electrification programme thereby pushing electricity coverage in the District to about 77 percent. Electricity is distributed and managed in the District by Electricity Company of Ghana Limited and recently Power Distribution Services Limited. There exist few communities which are not connected to the national grid. Also fringes of some already connected
communities are also without electricity. Petroleum Preliminary studies by Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) have shown
that oil and gas potentials exist in the District. This potential is currently being explored by Swiss Africa Oil Company Ltd under the supervision of Ministry of Energy, Energy Commission and GNPC. This notwithstanding, the downstream sector is very active with a lot of oil marketing companies and are well represented across the District with various petroleum products.
Fuel for Domestic Use The main source of fuel for cooking by households in the District is wood (59.9%). This is followed by charcoal and gas. The use of wood is far higher in rural areas (68.7%) than urban settings (8.8%) in the District. The reverse situation is observed in the use of charcoal where the urban localities account for close to 57.5 percent as compared with rural localities (23.6%). Similar trend is replicated in the use of gas as fuel for cooking with a higher proportion of 27.9 percent and 4.3 percent for urban and rural localities respectively. It is likely that unavailability and initial high cost of using gas makes its usage in rural localities less attractive.